


Seaside Sunshine

by kairis



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Crushes, Eremin Month, Eremin month day 6: road trip, Fluff, M/M, Road Trips, Slow Build, i'm sorry for the lame title, incredibly mild angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 18:13:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11719788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kairis/pseuds/kairis
Summary: Armin, fully intending to skip out on school the day of a trip he's unable to attend, gets dragged along for a surprise with Eren.





	Seaside Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> For Eremin month (August 2017), day 6: road trip.
> 
> Special love and thanks to Jill, for always being there to listen to Eremin ramblings no matter what ❤.
> 
> Happy Eremin month to everyone else. It feels wonderful to be back to writing.

The white slip of paper held in his fingertips had been following his thoughts around all day. Armin was laying down on his bed, the flimsy half sheet of paper held up high in the air above him. The ceiling light shone dimly against the back of the white sheet (he’d need to replace the bulb soon probably), but he could still clearly make out the printed type on the paper.

_SHIGANSHINA HIGH SCHOOL_

_11th Grade Marine Biology field trip_

_Ms. Zoe Hange’s 11th grade marine bio classes will be taking a field trip to the Trost Aquarium on May 22; students will be given a guided tour of all the exhibits, as well as receiving a special access tour of the behind the scenes running of the aquarium and care for the animals._

_This trip will be an all day excursion, lasting from 8:30AM until 5PM._

_Cost: $200*_

_*The cost includes bus transportation to and from the school and the aquarium, admission to the aquarium, the special access tour, a meal voucher for lunch, and other miscellaneous expenses._

The _“Cost: $200”_ part of the text was what really had felt like it’d been nailed into Armin’s thoughts the moment he’d been handed the slip this morning.

_$200._

Armin sighed softly as he turned onto his side and set the paper down on his bedside table. There was no realistic way he’d be going on this trip, no way he’d be able to come up with a spare two hundred dollars in the next two weeks. Not when he and his grandfather were barely making their rental payments each month, and definitely not when whatever spare money he had went straight into his slowly accumulating college fund.

Why did he care so much, again? Armin asked himself as he stared up contemplatively at the ceiling of his bedroom. The lightbulb flickered once before deciding it had enough left in it to stay on.

It was just a school trip, yet Armin felt a strong feeling of disappointment permeating throughout himself every time he thought of how he’d not be able to go. The disappointment weighed down on his limbs, made it feel difficult to move.

He thought back to this morning, how when he’d received the paper, he’d given the _“Cost: $200”_ line a quick glance and then immediately had folded the paper up and stashed it into his pocket. From the very beginning, he’d known it wouldn’t be feasible for him to consider going, and yet…

Eren had been sitting beside at their shared table, his brilliant green eyes gleaming from excitement and the harsh bright classroom lighting. For the first time that morning, Eren had actually seemed quite lively, despite his usual groggy disposition at being awake at 7:45AM. Seeing Eren so attentive in class, so _happy_ to be awake at that awful hour, just because of something small like a field trip...it made Armin’s heart flutter. The way Eren would swing his feet back and forth as they listened to the lecture, the way his eyebrows furrowed when he concentrated on taking notes, and the way Eren would purse his lips before whispering to Armin _“how do you spell ‘poikilotherm’, again?”_ , was all too much for Armin to bear without his face flushing red as he kept an eye on his friend.

No, it definitely wasn’t missing out on the special access tour or the possibility to see dozens of sea creatures he could only dream about that Armin was disappointed by. It was the fact that he wouldn’t be there to see Eren, to see his best friend’s excitement, to see that sparkle in his eyes as Eren’s face lit up in amazement.

****

Eren had been one of the first things Armin could remember about Shiganshina. As a newly parentless, eleven year old boy transported from his small coastal town to another small, inland town, Armin had felt completely lost. The entire world as he’d known it had suddenly been taken from him, and all he could do about it was let his misery wash over him like the waves of the ocean he longed for.

The first day of sixth grade had been rough on Armin. Small towns were not the most welcoming of places to outsiders, especially if that outsider was a new student coming in during the middle of the school year. That first day of school had been spent by Armin trying to endure the uncomfortable and unwelcoming stares of his new classmates, all of whom seemed to be trying to either avoid him or outright go out of their way to make him feel like he wasn’t wanted.

He’d been sitting alone at the only empty table in the cafeteria, not one bit inclined to be eating his cheap school lunch of chicken strips and slightly greyish and mushy peas. He’d kept his eyes down, not even wanting to watch the rest of the lunch crowd as they chattered away in groups of friends together. Instead, he took to carefully scrutinizing the contents of his lunch tray, how the peas were so wrinkly they looked like raisins, how the breading of the chicken strips was crumbling. Just as he’d been about to actually take a gander at eating a forkful of the peas, he heard the sound of one of the plastic lunch trays clattering against the tabletop across from him.

Armin quickly shoveled the forkful of peas into his mouth, and he lifted his eyes up to see who had dared to come approach an outsider like him. His eyes were met with a pair of brilliant green ones, and the kid who’d set his lunch tray down introduced himself as Eren.

The rest was history.

Eren had been there for him in a time when he’d needed a friend more than anything, and he’d given him a light when he’d been fumbling in the dark for months.

****

Mikasa had once broached the topic of Armin’s feelings towards Eren with him. They were sitting cross legged together, the two of them, on her bed with their chemistry homework strewn out before them. It was only a few days after Mikasa’s sixteenth birthday, a chilly February day where the sun had barely peeked out from behind a cover of gray clouds. Eren was supposed to be home by now, _supposed_ to be joining the study session, so that he didn’t fail the chemistry test later in the week. Just before Mikasa and Armin had finished their walk back from school to the Jaegers’ home, Eren had sent Armin a text telling him he’d be late because his wrestling practice was running overtime. So, for a short while, it’d be just Armin and Mikasa alone in the house. 

Armin didn’t mind Mikasa’s company one bit, but he had found himself feeling quite antsy at the thought that Eren wouldn’t be there _right here, right now_. He told himself it was because he was worried about Eren’s performance on the chemistry test, that Eren wouldn’t have enough time to study the information that he barely understood, but Armin was still aware of the fact that it was something much more complicated than that. 

When he saw Eren, he felt like his heart was about to jump out of his chest. His body felt tingly, and he felt like the rest of the world could be burning down, but he’d be fine as long as Eren was by his side. If they touched for some reason, Armin would feel the sensation of Eren’s body on his lingering and warming him. 

It wasn’t like this with Mikasa. Mikasa was the only other best friend he had, but he never felt the same fluttering excitement whenever he saw her. Sure, she was pretty, and he cared about her and loved her, but his feelings toward Eren just weren’t the _same_. 

Armin thought that ever since he’d become aware of these feelings, he’d been rather good at keeping them locked up deep inside of him, where no one would ever be able to detect a trace of them. 

No one except Mikasa, it seemed. 

“I know how you feel about Eren,” she’d said quietly, while her eyes scanned over the contents of a review sheet. The way she’d said it was so casual, so conversational that Armin almost didn’t recognize what it’d been that she’d actually said. 

“How I…uh, what?” Armin stammered. He could feel his cheeks starting to flush red with embarrassment. “Wh-what do you mean?” 

“You tell me,” Mikasa said bluntly, setting down the sheet of paper to lay down on her bedspread. 

Armin’s mouth had stayed open in a small gap for a few brief moments as he tried to collect his thoughts. Where had he gone wrong so that someone could tell…? 

“You…um, you said…” Armin tried to think of a way around having to spill out what he _knew_ Mikasa had meant. 

Finally, he steadied his voice. 

“You were implying that you think I like Eren,” he said slowly. He fidgeted with the pencil he was holding in his hand, his palms becoming sweaty. 

Mikasa raised an eyebrow at the word “implying”, but she seemed to be satisfied with the rest of what Armin had said. She picked up her chemistry notebook and flipped it open to the middle of its pages, her neat notes lining the page. “I think you should talk to him about it.” 

Armin’s mouth hung open for a moment as he processed Mikasa’s words. 

“I don’t…I don’t _feel_ that way towards Eren,” Armin stammered out, lying through his teeth. He felt shame rising up in his body as he said those words, but he couldn’t help himself. It was weird for him to have a crush on his best friend, wasn’t it? What would Eren say? What would everyone else say? It was bad enough when he’d mustered up the courage to tell people that, yes, he _did_ like boys. There’d been plenty of teasing and awkwardness that’d followed him around school for months, the uncomfortable stares of his peers returning to haunt him once more like he was the new kid all over again. 

Then came the sound of the back door creaking open and being slammed shut, clearly audible from Mikasa’s bedroom despite the two of them being upstairs. The clunky thud of a heavy bag against the mudroom’s floor and a call of “I’m back!” signaled Eren’s return home. 

Mikasa gave Armin a skeptical glance, her eyebrow still arched in a questioning way. As they heard the sound of Eren stepping heavily up the stairs, she let her expression soften into a much more neutral one. 

“Think about what I said, okay?” Mikasa asked quietly, looking directly into Armin’s eyes. “It isn’t exactly how you think it is.” 

Armin nodded silently, with absolutely no intention of actually following through with Mikasa’s suggestion. Just as Eren had popped his head into Mikasa’s open bedroom door, it seemed that there was nothing amiss between the two. Armin was focused on his review sheet, Mikasa was scanning her notes, and there was not a single thing that could indicate the conversation they’d just had had even happened. 

****

There were now two days left before the field trip would be happening, and Armin couldn’t feel any less disappointment running through his body. Just yesterday, he’d watched as Eren marched up to the front of the marine biology classroom and handed in an envelope containing both his signed permission slip and a check for $200. Armin had felt crushed, realizing that it also meant Mikasa would definitely be attending the trip as well, and she’d be turning in that envelope later that afternoon in her marine biology class. As for Armin, his permission slip was already long gone. He’d crumpled it up the night he’d gotten it, and by now the sad sheet of paper was most likely sitting surrounded by other waste at the landfill. 

He’d sighed as he waited for class to start, absently doodling on the margin of his notes while Eren returned to their table. Everyone else was excitedly chattering away or turning in their own envelopes of permission slips and checks, but the excitement of the atmosphere did nothing to make Armin feel even a fraction less of disheartened.

“Hey, Armin.”

Armin tore his eyes away from the doodle, which was really more or less just a collection of scribbled lines, to face Eren. Eren had gently nudged him with his elbow.

“Yeah?” Armin asked, glancing towards the front of the classroom. Ms. Hange was still collecting a slowly growing stack of envelopes at her cluttered desk.

“What’s up? You seem a bit…down,” Eren said. He, too, had taken a quick glance towards the front of the classroom to follow what Armin had been looking at.

“It’s nothing,” was Armin’s immediate response. He knew that Eren would not take that for an answer, but the words slipped out of his mouth before he could consciously stop himself.

“You haven’t turned in your permission slip yet either,” Eren said quietly. He gave Armin another gentle nudge with his elbow. “Are you not gonna go?”

“Yeah, not going,” Armin answered simply.

Up at the front of the classroom, Ms. Hange had set down the stack of envelopes and had raised her voice her announce the beginning of class. She started pulling down the projection screen as everyone else scrambled to pull their notebooks and textbooks out for the lecture.

“Oh.” The look in Eren’s eyes softened in understanding, and his lips turned downward into a slight frown. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off by Ms. Hange’s voice as she began the lesson.

Armin shifted his eyes away from Eren, not wanting to add Eren’s disappointment into his own mounting one.

****

On the morning of May 22nd at sharply 6:30AM, Armin was jolted from his sleep by the ear grinding sound of his phone buzzing incessantly. He fumbled in the darkness for several moments, groping around on his desk beside his bed to find the vibrating phone. He squinted his eyes against the sudden brightness as he unlocked his phone and viewed his notifications.

There were 7 new text notifications, all from within the past minute.

All of which were from Eren.

_hey are you up_

_??_

_wake up sleepyhead_

_i’m out front right now so can you get up and let me in_

_i gotta talk to you about something :)_

_i swear it’s not anything bad either so just get up and let me in okay_

_armin wake up okay please_

_are you up yet?_

Armin wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be amused or irritated that he’d been woken up. He’d decided that rather than go to school and face the prospect of even greater reminders of the fact that he couldn’t attend the trip, he’d simply skip the day and spend it at home. That way, he’d at least have the comforts of home if he ended up feeling any more miserable about the situation at all. The night before, he’d even managed to convince one of his coworkers to switch shifts, so that he’d have an optimum amount of time to do whatever it was he wanted to. He’d be able to catch up on sleep, maybe get a head start on a couple of exam reviews, perhaps even take a walk around town and enjoy the mild late spring weather… 

None of the plans he’d had for the day had started with being woken up far too early in the morning, however. Despite that, Armin settled for a mix of amusement and irritation as Eren continued to send a flurry of text messages to him. The way his phone vibrated in his hands with each notification made Armin’s fingers tingle and his heart flutter. After there was a very brief moment of silence, Armin finally typed out and sent a response to Eren.

_Calm down. I’ll let you in._

Setting his phone back down on the desk, Armin pulled himself out of bed and stretched before marching off to the front door of the apartment. He didn’t bother dressing himself, opting to still stay in his flannel pajama pants and fading t-shirt. He flicked on the lights in the living room on his way to the front door, wincing at the sharp brightness. After unbolting the front door, he opened it to find Eren, leaning casually up against the second floor balcony railing awaiting Armin. Over the top of the adjacent apartment complex building, Armin could tell that the sun was making its journey into the pink sky. 

“Sorry about waking you up,” Eren said. He grinned sheepishly at Armin, immediately moving forward to enter into the apartment. He was dressed in a loosely fitting flannel shirt, left unbuttoned to reveal a dark tank top underneath. His jeans were frayed at the cuffs, a little bit too long for his legs, and they were worn at the knees into a lighter blue than the rest of the pants. 

“It’s okay,” Armin said quietly, shutting the door behind Eren. “What do you want to talk about?” 

Eren was looking over the framed photos hanging up above the living room sofa. He jammed his hands into his jeans pockets. “So, I know you’re planning on skipping school today.” 

Armin wasn’t surprised. Eren knew him too well. 

“So, what? You and Mikasa aren’t going to be at school today anyways,” Armin said. He dropped himself down onto the sofa, its threadbare cushions soft and comfortable. “Since when did you care about skipping school to begin with?” 

Eren laughed and then fell quiet. His eyes trailed over to the hallway where Armin’s grandfather’s bedroom was. “Sorry, dunno if he’s still asleep or not.” 

“He should’ve left for work probably about ten minutes ago,” Armin said. “So, don’t worry.” 

“Anyway,” Eren said, plopping himself down next to Armin on the sofa. They were incredibly close, their thighs just barely touching. “I was thinking maybe you and me could go out and do something today, since you’re not going to school anyway.” 

“…and what about you? You’re going on that trip, aren’t you?” Armin asked. He shifted his position a tiny bit, trying to keep himself from being too close to Eren. 

“Well, I was going on it, but then I realized that you weren’t going, so I don’t wanna go anymore,” Eren said simply. As if in response to Armin moving away slightly, Eren moved himself ever so slightly closer to Armin. Their thighs were touching once again. “I talked with my mom about it and with Ms. Hange, and they all agreed that I could let my money go to someone else so that they could go. I think it went to Annie…? I don’t remember exactly.” 

Armin’s eyes widened. “You did that just for me? Just because I wasn’t going to go?” 

“Am I that bad of a friend that you’d think I wouldn’t do something like this?” Eren laughed. He slapped Armin on the back lightly, and Armin felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him at the feeling of Eren’s hand on his back. 

Armin chuckled along with Eren. 

“I’d do anything for you, Armin,” Eren said as their laughter died down. “You know that, right?” 

Armin felt his cheeks burning red, and he nodded. “So, what is it you have in mind for today then?” 

“It’s a surprise,” Eren said. He grinned cheekily at Armin. “You okay with that?” 

Armin looked over Eren’s face, _that smile_ of his that made Armin feel like he was melting into a puddle. He’d be okay with anything Eren proposed, so long as he’d get to see that toothy grin on Eren’s face.

****

After dressing himself into a pair of jeans and a thin t-shirt, Armin wrote a quick note for his grandfather explaining that he’d be going out for the day and left it on the kitchen table. With an old canvas backpack over his shoulder, Armin locked up the apartment and joined Eren outside on the balcony, and the pair descended down into the small parking lot adjoining the apartment complex. Parked right in front of the building was Eren’s forest green pickup truck, worn and somewhat beaten as always. The truck was practically Eren’s child, something he’d worked on to pay for on his own and had lovingly maintained for the past year. Armin had never really seen the same reasons Eren did for loving the truck, but he supposed that if he had bought a vehicle (regardless of how well it ran) with his own hard earned money, he’d feel similarly.

They both climbed into the cab of the truck together, Eren taking the driver’s seat. While Armin buckled his seatbelt, Eren handed him a brown paper bag that had been sitting on center seat of the cab. It bore the red star shaped logo of Ackerman Bakery, a local bakery joint and favorite spot of many high school students to stop by after school for a bite to eat. The smell of hot sausage and freshly baked bread wafted from the bag, the bottom of which was warm in the palms of Armin’s hands.

“I stopped by to get some breakfast for us, but I already ate mine already,” Eren said as he started up the truck. The truck’s engine sputtered briefly before roaring to life. Eren rolled down the windows, letting in a slow moving breeze across the cab of the truck.

“The bakery doesn’t open until 7:30,” Armin commented, pulling out a shiny silvery foil wrapped meat bun from the bag.

“Levi gets up at like, five every morning to get stuff ready for the day.” Eren turned his head around to look out the back window of the truck as he reversed out of the parking space. “He doesn’t mind his favorite employee coming in a little early to grab some food and give a little extra help.”

Armin bit into the still hot bun, laughing slightly at Eren. He held back the urge to remind Eren that Eren was one of the only other employees in the bakery to begin with. Eren drove through the sleepy town as the sun continued to rise higher in the sky. They passed through the main street, past the shops that were setting up for business hours, past the high school with its bright yellow school buses parked as hordes of students hopped off to attend school, and towards the quieter residential area of town. The tree lined road was at its busiest this hour of the day, which meant there was a relatively small number of other drivers on the road. Several cars and trucks whizzed by a Eren was stuck behind a slower sedan, but the traffic lightened up once they reached the highway.

By the time Armin had finished his bun, crumpling up the silver foil wrapping and dumping it into the paper bag, they were about fifteen minutes outside of town. The radio had just cut to a commercial break, fuzzy static noises making some of the narration of the commercial for an auto parts store unclear. Armin stretched his arms out, the tips of his fingers reaching the ceiling of the truck. He tried to stifle a yawn as he glanced to the dashboard clock, displaying the time as 7:05, but he failed to suppress the loud yawn.

“Are you tired?” Eren asked. He kept his eyes focused on the road.

“A little bit,” Armin said wearily. He rubbed his eyes. “I was planning on sleeping in this morning. Why’d you bother coming to wake me up this early?”

Eren shrugged. “I want to spend as much of the day as possible with you.”

Armin smiled to himself, fiddling with the hem of his shirt to hide his expression from Eren. Eren wanted to spend the day with _him_.

“Anyway, how about you lay down and catch up on some sleep for a little bit?” Eren suggested. He was drumming his fingertips along the steering wheel, trying to keep up in pace with the song blaring from the radio. “We won’t be there for a little while anyways.”

Armin debated whether or not he’d want to stay awake, to chat with Eren, to watch Eren’s handsome face. But the temptation of shutting his eyes for a quick nap was incredibly strong. He’d be much readier for whatever it was that Eren had in mind for the day, the lingering grogginess eliminated.

“Alright,” Armin agreed. He hesitated for a moment to stretch his legs out across the cab seats, but Eren had suggested he lay down. So, he pulled his legs over to stretch across the seats, his feet ending up partially in Eren’s lap, and he laid his head back against the window. The sound of the wind blowing as Eren sped down the highway combined with the occasional radio static fuzz lulled him to sleep as he shut his eyes for a brief rest.

****

Armin woke to the sound of static on the radio once more. His head had a slight ache in the back of it as he lifted his head off from the hard surface of the truck window, but he otherwise felt refreshed. The clock displayed the time currently at 7:45. A forty minute nap had never felt so good. The scenery flying past outside was still the same as when Armin last remembered glancing out the window. Tall trees with lush green leaves, broken up by fields of green grass and grazing cows. He still couldn’t piece together where on earth Eren was taking him to. All he could tell was that they were heading east, based on the couple of road signs he’d seen.

“Are you cold?” Eren asked, jarring into Armin’s thoughts.

Armin hadn’t even noticed the hairs of his arm standing up straight. The wind from the open windows was chilly as it grazed across his skin. He’d always been prone to getting cold – he blamed his father, who had always been that way also.

Armin shrugged in response to Eren’s question. “A little bit, I guess.”

“Here.” With one hand on the wheel, Eren had started to strip off one of the sleeves of his flannel shirt. With ease, he switched his hand on the steering wheel and slipped the other sleeve off, tossing the shirt to Armin.

Armin caught the shirt onehandedly, bunching up the soft fabric in his fist. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Eren said. “Don’t want you getting cold.”

“Thanks.”

Armin slipped Eren’s flannel on, appreciating the warmth it provided. The sleeves were too long on him, the cuffs just reaching his knuckles, and the rest of Eren’s shirt was admittedly rather baggy as well. Still, it provided a warmth against the chill of the wind blowing against Armin, and he was sure it was not just Eren’s residual body heat that was making it feel so warm.

Even the smell of the shirt was just so _Eren_. It made Armin’s heart flutter for what seemed like the hundredth time that day so far. Armin leaned his arm up against the open window, resting his chin in his palm and taking in the smell of the sleeve cuff. The wind was blowing his hair around wildly as they sped down the highway, but Armin was still able to catch the words of yet another roadside sign.

LIBERIO 10 MILES

Armin’s eyes widened as he peeled himself away from the window.

Liberio.

 _His_ town? It couldn’t be a coincidence that Eren was driving them nearby the very town he’d grown up, which he’d spent lamenting about to Eren when they were kids.

“Are we heading to Liberio?” Armin asked. His eyes darted back to look out the window again. He recognized this area far too well. The thinning trees and the wide open hills of the coastal region were all too familiar to him.

“Maybe,” Eren said. The tone of his voice was light, and he’d dragged out that first syllable in a way that made Armin certain that this “maybe” was much more of a “yes”.

The small church on the righthand side of the road was just as underwhelming as Armin had remembered it. It still had the same bleach white washed siding and small gravel parking lot off to the side, and a hand painted sign displaying the name LIBERIO CHURCH.

The last time that Armin had seen the first mark of his hometown had been as an eleven year old boy, in the passenger seat of his grandfather’s car. He’d miserably looked back as the town and all he’d ever known in his life had slowly disappeared behind the backdrop of cloudy skies and traffic.

And now he was back, driving towards the town for the first time in so long. The sun had climbed up higher into the sky, casting down brilliant rays of light. There were hardly any clouds in sight. Armin watched out of the window in awe as Eren drove through the town. His heart felt somewhat heavy in his chest as he watched the familiar sights go past him.

He’d been gone so long, and nothing had changed, yet it still felt bizarrely different. 

Eren steered the truck down the shop lined main street, which provided a direct access point to the seaside. At last, they finally pulled into a parking space, in a deserted lot that fronted directly to the sandy beach. 

“Well, Armin, we’re here,” Eren said with a cheeky grin as he turned the truck’s ignition off. “What do you say we do first?” 

Armin cast his eyes over the beach before him, the sun glinting against the ocean water. As expected of a sleepy town at barely eight in the morning, there were hardly any people up and about. The only people on the beach were a couple walking a large, excited dog along the sand. 

“I think it’s a bit too early for the beach,” Armin suggested. “The water is probably too cold…so, maybe I’ll show you around the town.” 

“Sounds like a plan to me.” 

****

Armin could not remember a single time when he’d seen Eren’s attention so undividedly focused on one thing. They took to getting out of the truck, the sea breeze whipping against their faces and bringing in the scent of the salty water to their nostrils. Armin rolled the sleeves of Eren’s flannel up to his elbows, wanting to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. Eren was surveying the happenings of the oceanfront street, his eyes wandering over the façade of a cheap three story hotel and a spread of adjoining shops. When Armin suggested that they start walking, Eren immediately took his attention away from the townscape to focus on Armin. 

He’d chosen a completely random direction to start walking in, southwards on the road lining the beach, but Armin was sure there’d be plenty for him to talk about with Eren as he walked along the familiar sidewalk pathway. Sure enough, there was. Memories of summers spent biking along this very same cracked pavement, walking with his parents and lugging a huge sand pail as they approached the beach.

“I used to go biking with my mom and dad along this path,” Armin said. Eren had fallen into step right beside him, their paces even and matching.

“It’s a pretty view,” Eren commented.

Rather than gazing at the admittedly pretty view of steep sand dunes turning into flat expanses of sandy beach, Eren’s eyes were all but focused on Armin. Armin tried to not pay too much attention to the way that the breeze was blowing Eren’s hair across his face, how Eren’s bare arms were slightly more muscular than he last remembered them being.

Was that “pretty view” a compliment directed straight at him? Armin pushed the thought aside. That was silly. Eren couldn’t possibly like him _that way_.

For a while, they walked shrouded in content silence along the coastal pathway. The only sounds came from around them, from the seagulls squawking overhead to the ocean’s waves crashing against the shoreline and to a few cars that had puttered past them on the road. After some time, though, Armin realized where his feet were guiding him towards. He and Eren had reached a part of the road that intersected with a smaller street, leading off towards a collection of shingled homes. Armin halted in his steps, staring down the familiar street across from them.

“Do…do you want to see where I used to live?” Armin asked quietly. He felt more like he was asking himself the question. His heart felt like it’d skipped several beats, but it wasn’t the same nervous excitement that he felt around Eren.

“Yeah, of course,” Eren answered. “If you want to.”

Armin was about to let his hesitation take over him, to change his mind and say he didn’t want to, but Eren had suddenly moved closer to him. They were just barely a centimeter or two apart, shoulder to shoulder. Eren’s presence right beside him was comforting, and the nervousness had started to quell somewhat.

“Then let’s go,” Armin decided.

After looking out for oncoming traffic, the two crossed over the coastal road, setting foot onto the narrow residential street. There was no pathway lining the gravelly street, so Armin and Eren had to settle with walking along the very edge of the street. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any traffic heading their way. Eren was still sticking close to Armin as Armin led the way down the street. More than once, Armin felt the tips of their fingers brush against each other’s arm or wrist. He tried his best to keep the thought of Eren touching him _(maybe even touching him on purpose)_ from getting in the way of navigating down the street, but the slight brushing of Eren’s skin against his kept surfacing in his mind. Was it on purpose? If it was, then why?

Armin was finally able to snap out of the spiraling questions when they arrived at the front of a familiar quaint blue shingled home. The blue color of the shingles had faded to a light sky blue since the last time Armin had seen the house, and the large front porch was surrounded by well trimmed low lying flower bushes. The scraggly elm tree in the yard was smaller than Armin remembered it being. Aside from those minor differences, there was hardly a thing that didn’t invoke memories of his home from flooding to Armin.

“So, this is it?” Eren asked expectantly, still shoulder to shoulder with Armin

“Yeah,” Armin breathed. He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly, trying to blow all of his tension out.

From up on the porch came the sound of wind chimes being tickled by the breeze, the metal chimes clinking against each other gently. Armin vaguely remembered there being a wind chime on the porch when he’d lived here, but he couldn’t tell whether this one was the same. It’d been so long since he’d been home. The house was different, yet it was also strangely the same in many ways, the effects of having been lived in by another person, another family having made their mark on it. Armin bit down gently on his lip, teasing the skin to soothe his uneasiness.

Suddenly, one of his hands was in Eren’s. He wasn’t sure who had made that first move, whether it was he himself who had grabbed for Eren’s hand or whether Eren had taken the initiative, but Armin was thankful for Eren not shying away at all. Eren’s warm hand squeezed his comfortingly.

“We don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” Eren said softly. His fingers had snaked to interlock with Armin’s, his thumb rubbing a smooth circle against the back of Armin’s hand.

“No…uh.” Armin struggled to find his words for a few moments. “Let’s just go to somewhere else.”

Anywhere but _here_.

Eren gave a broad smile to Armin, one of those infectious smiles that was hard to not reflect back no matter what mood he was in.

They trekked back up the street like that, hand in hand, Eren kicking small chunks of gravel across the street when the urge seemed to hit him. Once they’d made it up back to the coastal road, Armin continued leading the way. Generally, they were heading back up the road from the direction they’d originally came from, but Armin didn’t really consciously choose to. His feet led him mindlessly back to the central part of town. Eren’s hand stayed clasped firmly around Armin’s.

The town was a bit livelier by the time they’d returned. Most of the shops lining the main street and the coastal road were opened up, shopfront doors propped open to let the breeze in. Although the streets were still nearly deserted of traffic, the sidewalks were busy enough with small crowds of tourists. A young couple, a woman pushing a stroller with a dozing infant in it and a man carrying a large paper gift bag, walked past Eren and Armin as they stopped at the intersection of the coastal road and the main street. Neither of the two had even given a glance towards Eren and Armin, yet Armin felt like he was setting himself up for being a spectacle, what with Eren holding onto his hand and walking so close to him. Slowly, Armin withdrew his fingers from Eren’s grip, opting to simply link their arms together instead. Eren didn’t question it, going along with whatever Armin felt like doing.

For the next couple hours, they wandered around town like that, arm in arm, walking at an even slow pace. Armin guided Eren to all of the locations that he could think of.

They stopped by his old elementary school, staring at it from across the road and watching as kids were playing and shouting on the fenced in playground. Armin rambled to Eren about stories from the elementary school that he could only half remember, like the time he and his friend Marco had spent all of recess one day in third grade (or was it fourth grade, or had it even been during school to begin with?) trying to catch grasshoppers in their palms. They’d ended up with more grass stains on the knees of their pants than anything, but it’d been a fun way to spend an otherwise slightly boring half hour outside. Eren laughed heartily as Armin described his and Marco’s failed attempts to actually capture anything. Armin felt mesmerized by the way that Eren leaned his head back to laugh, the clear sky like a backdrop for his handsome profile.

They passed by the library, where Armin had spent hours of his time every week after school while he waited for his parents to finish their work shift for the day. He and Eren stood together under the shade of a tall oak tree beside the brick library building, while Armin told about how he’d scoured over the library sections that were supposedly (according to most of his classmates, at least) boring adult literature; books about geography, about the world laying beyond their small sleepy town. Armin had always been fascinated by those volumes of books, lugging several of them around the library to the quietest table in one of the back corners, pouring over the contents when he’d promised his mother he’d be working on his homework assignments instead. He’d always wanted to see further than just the nearest few towns around Liberio, all of which were basically identical to one another anyways.

Armin laughed bitterly as he realized when he was telling this to Eren that the way he’d been able to see the world beyond Liberio was only after his parents had died all those years ago. Eren gave a questioning brow raise to Armin, but he didn’t pursue it any further when Armin suggested that they get moving along.

The sun had climbed its way even higher up into the sky by the time that Eren and Armin had circled back to the main street, situated at the intersection across from the parking lot again. At some point, Eren had unlinked their arms, which Armin didn’t quite mind him doing anyways. The heat of the sun was beating down harder on them, and even the warmth from Eren was growing to be a bit uncomfortable. Not even the breezy air was helping keep the temperature cool.

They stopped in at a small takeout shop along the main street for lunch. Armin recognized the shop, nestled in between a gift shop bearing a display of beach towels in its front windows and a narrow hair salon, but he could swear this particular shop hadn’t been a restaurant last time he’d seen it.

With a paper bag stuffed with their foil wrapped lobster rolls and a slightly unreasonable amount of freshly fried potato chips in hand, they had planned to eat their lunch peacefully picnicking on the beach. However, when they reached their first footstep into the sandy dunes, Armin saw to his disappointment that by now, the beach was filled with tourists. All of them were spread out along the shoreline, tacky beach towels laid out and children darting in between the rows of sunbathing adults, flicking wet sand at each other and shrieking. This would definitely not work for what Armin had been hoping for. He glanced once more up and down the beach, before he suddenly remembered another location that was bound to be much less crowded.

Armin nudged Eren with his elbow, jerking his head back towards the road to indicate that they’d be going elsewhere. Eren tagged along, his hands occupied with holding two ice cold water bottles. Once they reached the sidewalk again, Armin headed up the path, walking northwards. Eren trailed behind him, a curious look on his face as they went further from the beach.

After a few minutes of trekking alongside the road, they reached an area of town that was more or less only made up of the road and empty fields, and of course the ocean. Off the side of the sidewalk was a well worn sandy dirt path snaking down a steep hillside. The grassy slope dipped down to meet up with the beach, the grass giving way to expanses of sand. The ocean waves lapped up against the wet sand, washing up bits of plant debris and seashells.

As Armin had expected, there wasn’t a single person present on this beach. The small cove was sheltered by the hillsides surrounding it, making it only accessible by the steep pathway he and Eren had climbed down.

“So, we got our little private beach now, huh?” Eren asked playfully as they both plopped themselves down onto the dry sand. He handed one of the water bottles to Armin.

“Yeah, this is away from the main beach, so no one really comes here,” Armin said. He set the bag of sandwiches and chips between them, reaching in to grab his own.

For the first time that day, Armin noticed that Eren’s attention wasn’t focused on him. Eren was taking in the scenery of the small cove, eyes raking over the grayish sand and chunky rocks dotting the area, the slimy seaweed washing up onto the shore.

“Did I ever tell you that I’d never been to the beach before?” Eren asked. He absently reached into the paper bag as well to pull out his sandwich.

“You really haven’t?” Armin questioned.

“Yeah. Really.” Eren tore off a large bite from his roll. His cheeks puffed up as he chewed it.

“Even though you don’t live too far from here? Your parents have seriously never taken you to the beach before?” It was hard to believe. Armin had practically grown up on the beach. He’d listened to the sounds of waves crashing against the shore every night as he’d fallen asleep, he’d had countless picnics every summer along the beach with his parents, and he’d spent many more hours playing in the water and exploring around the shoreline.

“Never have time for it, I guess,” Eren mumbled. “Mom’s always busy with work ever since Dad passed, Mikasa doesn’t like going outside…”

Eren laughed at the last reason, but it seemed somewhat hollow to Armin.

“But I’m glad I’ve been able to spend my first time at the beach here with you, Armin,” Eren continued. He grinned widely. There was a stringy strand of lobster meat caught in between his front teeth, which made Armin giggle and return the grin.

“I’m glad the first time I’m coming back here has been with you,” Armin said quietly. “It means a lot to me.”

Lunch continued on with idle chat filling their time. After they’d finished eating every last bite of the food and stashed the empty paper bag and wrappings into Armin’s backpack, Eren suggested that they go into the water.

At first, Armin was all but accepting to the suggestion, but then as they stood up, Eren started to slip his shoes off, throw off his shirt, and strip down to just his boxers.

“Um…Eren?” Armin asked hesitantly. He tried to keep his eyes from trailing across Eren’s body, his tan skin glinting with a thin sheen of sweat in the sun, his muscles lean. “How deep are you planning on getting into the water?”

“Dunno,” Eren said, shrugging. “Deep as I want to go. Now come on, don’t be shy. Let’s go for a swim!”

He didn’t have to be shy. _Hell_ , he’d seen Eren naked before at some point or other, so why did it make him feel this way? Armin took a deep breath as he watched Eren jog down to the water without him. And then, without further hesitation, he slipped off the rest of his clothes and shoes down to his boxer shorts as well, leaving them in a pile beside Eren’s.

Eren was already mid thigh deep into the water by the time Armin approached him. The water was icy against Armin’s skin, making him shiver briefly.

“Thanks for waiting on me,” Armin said dryly as he waded through the water.

Eren flashed his grin again as he started backing further into the water. When Armin caught up to him, they were both in waist deep water at that point. Eren had a devilish smile on his face, and Armin did not have an ounce of surprise when Eren sloshed one of his hands in the water to splash Armin. The cold water dripped down his face and soaked his hair, trickling down his neck and chest.

“You cheeky shit,” Armin muttered. Eren laughed heartily and started to back away further as Armin prepared to splash him.

The ensuing chase throughout the water felt like it lasted only mere minutes, despite the fact that by the time it’d finished, the sun had lowered down closer to the horizon. Armin and Eren sent water flying at each other, sputtering and spitting when the salt would sting their eyes and mouths. Not quite as agile as Eren was, Armin would sometimes find that his feet would lose their hold on the loosely packed sand, and he’d slip and collapse underneath the calm ocean waves. Eren was always there immediately, not to take advantage of Armin’s quick stumble in their game, but to reach out a helping hand and drag Armin back up to the surface.

“You alright?” Eren would ask each time, squeezing Armin’s hand briefly.

Armin would nod a yes, and each time Eren would give him _that_ smile.

And they’d resume after that, Armin savoring the moments he and Eren were touching, the brief smiles that Eren would give only to him. He wasn’t sure whether the burning sensation across his cheeks was due to the sun beating down from above or from the cool touch of Eren’s wet skin against his.

Eventually, they grew tired of this game, and they decided to retreat back to the shore and rest. They moved their things up a little further from the water, closer to where the outcropping of rocks surrounding the cove was. Waiting to dry off enough to put their clothes back on, Armin and Eren sat upon the rocks together. The sun high above them helped to dry off rather quickly, and soon they’d redressed and were back on the sand.

Despite his hair still being in the process of drying, Eren laid on his back in the sand, next to where Armin sat cross-legged. Armin pulled out a book from his backpack, which ended up being _The Count of Monte Cristo_ , and he started reading from a page he’d previously earmarked. It’d been a while since he’d last had the time to actually read for his own leisure, and certainly had been a while since he’d left off on reading the novel, and Armin found himself lost with the words he was reading.

“Hey, Armin,” Eren spoke up.

Armin was just about to shut the book closed, frustrated with his inability to pick up onto what he was reading. “Yeah?”

“Can you read to me?” Eren asked. He was shielding his eyes against the sun with his forearm.

“I…uh, sure,” Armin stammered. He folded down the corner of the page he’d been struggling to read through and flipped to the very first page of the novel. “Are you alright with _Monte Cristo_? That’s all I’ve got for reading.”

“Fine with me,” Eren said. He yawned widely.

Armin started reading aloud to Eren, using a finger to follow every line. He would glance out of the corner of his eye sometimes as he read to look at Eren. Even though Eren still was shading his eyes from the sun shining above, Armin could tell that Eren’s entire attention was focused onto him and his words. Armin had never thought of himself as a good narrator at all, but the way Eren was attentively listening to every word he read was flattering and boosted his confidence. At the point in which he typically would’ve given up on reading aloud, around fifteen minutes, Armin continued reading on. He kept his voice steady even though his throat was gradually becoming drier, and his tongue would twist on an occasional word or two.

Eren didn’t seem to mind Armin’s fumbling with words at all, and he’d let out a quiet chuckle each time. After the first several chapters had been all fully read, Armin noticed that Eren had grown silent. He closed the book with his finger holding his reading place, and saw that Eren’s eyes were shut. Eren’s arm shielding his eyes from the sun had fallen limp and was barely even covering his face now. He was breathing slowly and shallowly. Armin rolled his eyes at realizing that Eren had managed to doze off while he was reading to him, but in the back of his mind he knew that had probably been one of the reasons Eren had wanted him to read to him anyways.

When they’d been younger, having sleepovers at the Jaegers’ house, Eren had sometimes asked Armin to read to him right before they fell asleep. They’d dim the lights of Eren’s bedroom and sit with their backs against the wall beside his bed, and Armin would read one of the many books he’d checked out from the library to Eren. Eren would slowly find himself lulled to sleep while sitting upright and listening, leaning his head against Armin’s shoulder. He’d once told Armin that his father would sometimes read him to sleep when he was younger, and Armin reading to him made him feel like his father had never died. Armin had never known how exactly he was supposed to feel in regard to that, but he realized then at the beach now that he was glad. Seeing Eren’s peaceful sleeping face, lit up by the shining sun, it made Armin immensely happy to know he’d managed to make Eren feel that way.

****

Eren stayed asleep for a few hours, while Armin continued to read (silently this time) _Monte Cristo_. The repetitive crashing of waves against the shore and the late afternoon breeze were perfect for reading. Armin laid down on his stomach in the sand, propping his head up on his palms as he read on. He kept a watchful eye on Eren, though, wanting to see when he’d wake up finally. By the time he was awake, Eren had curled over onto his side, facing towards Armin. When Armin noticed that Eren had groggily opened his eyes, he marked his place in the book and shut its cover. 

“Did I fall asleep?” Eren asked sleepily. He yawned, covering his mouth with his hand.

“Yeah,” Armin said. “Guess my reading was too boring for you.

It was all in jest, but Eren seemed serious enough when he replied.

“I like your reading. It’s nice and relaxing.”

Armin felt his face starting to flush, and he tried to find a way to avert the conversation away from about himself. “You want to go get some dinner? It’s starting to get late. I think it’s almost 6:30.”

“Mhm…sure,” Eren agreed.

They brushed off the sand on their clothes before leaving, Eren with their trash from earlier in tow and Armin shouldering his backpack.

“Dinner” for that evening turned out to be just two scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone for the two of them. They had walked back down to the main street of town, and Eren had somehow managed to convince Armin that they would be eating dessert for dinner tonight. Not that Armin particularly minded, especially not as he licked the slowly melting mint ice cream while he and Eren made their way back to the small cove. He mused, however, that his grandfather would probably not approve of him only eating one proper meal that entire day, but the sweetness of the ice cream and the eagerness on Eren’s face as they ate their ice creams was worth it.

They ate mostly in silence, sitting on the top of a flat chunk of rock on the beach. Armin’s ice cream was starting to drip down the cone, dribbling onto his fingers and making them sticky. He tried using a napkin to keep up with cleaning his sticky hands, but he gave up after finding it far too difficult to focus on eating and keeping his hands clean at once.

Eren also was much too focused on finishing his treat than keeping the melted dribbles of chocolate ice cream from getting on him. Armin managed to finish his cone before Eren, who was still crunching on the waffle cone. Eren had managed to get a streak of chocolate ice cream on the left corner of his mouth stretching out to his cheek, like he was a young kid messily eating. The melted ice cream clung stubbornly to Eren’s skin.

“You got some ice cream on your face,” Armin pointed out, busying himself with wiping his hands clean with the napkin.

“I do?” Eren paused as he chewed the remaining tip of his waffle cone. “Where?”

“On your cheek,” Armin said. He handed Eren another napkin.

Eren wiped the napkin up against the right corner of his mouth, rubbing vigorously.

“Wrong side,” Armin said. He used his finger to point to his own left cheek to indicate where Eren needed to be wiping at.

For a brief moment, Armin swore he saw Eren smirk. Eren brought the napkin up to his left cheek, but he was in the completely wrong area. The paper napkin was aimed at the apple of Eren’s cheek.

Armin snorted. “How would you have managed to get it that high up on your face?”

“You’d be amazed at the things I can do,” Eren said. He smirked playfully at Armin.

Armin rolled his eyes, but he laughed along with Eren. “Well, it’s a little lower than that.”

“Got it, right?” Eren had definitely not gotten it. He was wiping the napkin against his jaw.

“Higher,” Armin said. “Just a little higher though –”

Eren was now wiping at his left eyebrow, completely ignoring Armin’s advising.

Eren seemed to be trying to hold back his laughter, but now he had sputtered out laughs as he looked at Armin’s face of fake astonishment. Armin joined in with Eren’s laughter, his cheeks aching slightly with the amount of laughing he was doing.

“Do I look stupid with this smear of chocolate on my face?” Eren asked.

“Only a little bit,” Armin said. He held back on admitting that actually Eren looked a little bit cute.

“How about you wipe it off for me, alright?” Eren passed the napkin into Armin’s hands. Eren’s green eyes were sparkling in the light of the slowly descending sun. “Since I seem to not be able to get it off myself.”

Armin’s eyes widened in confusion. Eren…wanted him to wipe his face off? He’d been best friends with Eren and Mikasa for years now, but with Eren he still sometimes felt as though they were pushing the boundary between _best_ friends and _more than_ friends. Armin sometimes even found himself questioning if he even knew how to properly distinguish that fine line between relationships, and he knew it would only further complicate his feelings for Eren if he kept treading into unknown territory.

The look upon Eren’s face of complete disregard for what was and wasn’t acceptable between best friends, though, was enough to convince Armin otherwise.

Armin moved himself a little closer to Eren, so that they were both shoulder to shoulder, their bodies pressed up against each other. He reached out to wipe from the left corner of Eren’s mouth, tracing the napkin across the streak of chocolate. He found his other hand reaching to cup Eren’s other cheek, and he blindly told himself that it was only so that he could turn Eren’s head to properly wipe off the ice cream, but his gut feeling told him it was much more than that.

Even though he’d already wiped Eren’s face clean and set the napkin down into his lap, Armin couldn’t convince himself to bring his hand away from Eren’s cheek. They were close, staring right into each other’s eyes, and Armin could feel Eren’s warm breath up against his face.

Eren wasn’t even pull away either. He seemed mesmerized with Armin’s eyes right before him. Moment by moment, Eren was drawing himself closer to Armin, so that the tips of their noses touched. Eren’s breath was sweet like the chocolate he’d just eaten. One of his hands have snaked to clasp around Armin’s wrist.

Eren’s lips broke into a wide grin, and his eyes crinkled as he smiled at Armin.  
“Thanks for that,” Eren whispered.

Armin was absolutely certain that the burning sensation across his face was more than just sunburn.

Without wasting a moment, Eren brought his lips up against Armin’s, giving him a slow kiss.

Armin could feel the pounding of his heart against his chest, beating like an incessant drum. At Armin’s hesitation, Eren seemed to be retracting himself ever so slowly and uncertainly, but Armin made quick work of bringing his lips back to press against Eren’s.

Eren’s lips were chapped, but Armin didn’t care.

They were in the middle of a public area, but Armin didn’t care.

This was _definitely_ pushing the boundary between best friends and more than friends, _but Armin didn’t care_.

The kiss had probably lasted no more than a brief ten or fifteen seconds, but in that time Armin felt like he’d forgotten how to breathe properly. He drew in a deep breath as he and Eren pulled apart from each other, and he felt the corners of his mouth tugging upwards into a smile. Eren kept his hand clasped around Armin’s, his thumb rubbing circles into Armin’s skin.

“Hey, Armin,” Eren said breathlessly. “I wanna tell you something.”

“Yeah, go on,” Armin breathed out. He felt like his hand was being melted away at Eren’s touch.

“I know how you feel about me,” Eren said. “And I like you, too. Y’know, really like you. You’re my best friend, but…you’re also more than that to me.”

If the kiss hadn’t sent Armin’s mind into a flurry of thoughts, Eren’s words just then really did. Armin’s first instinct was to deny it, but the way that Eren was looking at him, the way Eren was holding onto him, the way Eren had just been touching him…that was stronger than the fleeting impulse to deny everything.

“…I like you, too, Eren,” Armin replied. “I like you a lot.”

And Eren grinned to him, squeezing his hand tightly.

****

The ride back to Shiganshina in Eren’s truck was mostly in silence, but it was not an uncomfortable silence. They’d wanted to stay to watch the sunset on the beach, but Armin had suggested they head back home before he gave his grandfather a reason to worry about him coming home late. The silence between them was content, and Armin found himself nearly dozing off with his head laid against the window. 

After Eren had pulled his truck into a parking space at the apartment complex, he followed Armin up to the second floor of the building to walk him to his apartment. Armin tried to fish the apartment keys from out of his jeans pocket as they stood at the apartment door, even though it was probably completely unnecessary, seeing as his grandfather should be home at that time anyway.

“Do you think we can do that again sometime?” Eren asked quietly as Armin finally dragged the keys from his pocket.

“Do what again? The skipping school to go to the beach thing –?”

“Er, do you think we can kiss another time?” Eren sheepishly laughed, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

The thought of kissing Eren made Armin feel tingling excitement. “Of course.”

Eren shifted his eyes to glance over at the sky. It was streaked with pinks and oranges as the sun was sinking down below the horizon.

Briefly, Armin drew close to Eren, taking hold of his hand and brushing his lips against Eren’s cheek to give him a quick peck.

“Thanks for today, by the way,” Armin said softly. He let his hand linger around Eren’s for a few moments longer.

“Thanks for being a part of it,” Eren returned back

Even in the dusky shadows of sunset, the grin on Eren’s face radiated bright enough to coerce Armin to give one in return.


End file.
